A shelter which can be conveyed by transportation means such as trailer, railroad or boats and ships, and which can be temporarily or continuously used has been developed. A transportable shelter has a rectangular parallelepiped shelter main body having a fixed structure corresponding to a container, and a floor panel is fixed to the shelter main body. A plurality of movable panels are provided on both sides of the shelter main body, they are movable between stored positions and deployed positions, and when the movable panels are deployed, an internal space of the shelter can be expanded. Medical equipment or business equipment is preliminarily mounted in the interior of the shelter, and when the movable panels are deployed at a usage time after transportation of the shelter, therapeutic intervention to a person can be conducted, a person can stay, and a meeting can be conducted in the shelter.
One example of a deployment shelter in which a plurality of movable panels is put in a stored state during transportation of the shelter and these movable panels are deployed before using is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,117,645.
This shelter has a front frame and a rear frame which are rectangular, respectively, upper portions of these frames are coupled to each other by a longitudinal beam member, and their lower portions are fixed with a flower panel. Main body side roof panels are fixed to the both sides of the beam member via hinges. A shelter main body with a fixed structure having the two frames and the longitudinal beam member is provided with foldable sections in which three movable panels are coupled to one another by hinges. Each section has: a movable floor panel continuous with the floor panel when deployed; a movable side panel coupled to the movable floor panel via a hinge; and a movable roof panel coupled to the movable side panel via a hinge and continuous with the main body side roof panel when deployed. The movable roof panel is coupled to the main body side roof panel by a hinge. When the shelter is stored or transported, the movable panels are folded. The movable panels are deployed before using.
When changing this shelter from a stored state to a deployed state, cables coupled to free ends of the movable floor panels are wound out of taking-up portions, so that the movable floor panels are deployed from vertical positions to horizontal positions with hinge portions serving as fulcrum points due to their self-weights. At this time, the movable side panels are also pivoted with the movable floor panels to reach horizontal positions. Hydraulic actuators for pivoting the movable side panels from the horizontal positions to the deployed positions are attached to the movable floor panels, and when the movable side panels are deployed up to their vertical positions, the movable roof panels coupled to the movable side panels via the hinges are driven from the stored positions where the movable roof panels are in a vertical state to deployed positions where the movable roof panels are in a horizontal state. At this time, the main body side roof panels coupled with the movable roof panels are pivoted about the hinges attached to the longitudinal beam member. When the movable panels are deployed, expanded internal spaces are formed in the shelter.